Innholdsfortegnelse for June 7, 2023 i Autocar

Roberto Fedeli joined Aston Martin a year ago. The Italian enjoyed a 26-year career at Ferrari, which culminated in him leading development of the LaFerrari hypercar, then held roles at BMW and FCA. He came to Aston Martin to be reunited with Amedeo Felisa, who was joining as CEO – the same role he had held at Ferrari in Fedeli’s time there. What was your brief when you arrived? “I was briefed by [chairman] Lawrence [Stroll] to change the products according to the new DNA of the brand. This so-called intensity-driven new definition of the brand had to be defined better in terms of the technology and the specification of the parts in the vehicle.” How important is developing future talent to you? “My target is to promote young talent,…

CHINESE GIANT CHERY is pressing ahead with plans to launch its Omoda C5 in the UK this year and has now revealed to Autocar that it will be joined shortly after by the Jaecoo 7. Jaecoo and Omoda are separate brands that will be sold beside each other here. Chery UK manager Victor Zhang told Autocar the firm is in talks with more than 100 UK dealers. “We’re planning to have 40-50 on board by the time we launch next February,” he added, with a combination of self-run sites and franchises set “to cover the main cities”. The Nissan Juke-sized C5 will be sold in both petrol and electric forms, the former of which Zhang said “should be less than £25,000”, making it one of the cheapest crossovers in the…

Porsche says its revised emblem, launched as part of the firm’s 75th-anniversary celebrations, is the result of an “intensive” three-year design process and aims to “bridge the history and future of the brand”. Here’s what’s new… PANAMERA TO LEAD NEW BRAND LOOK The new Panamera, to be revealed by the end of this year, will be the first car to wear Porsche’s new crest and dealerships will switch to the new identity at around the same time. Behind the badge, the thirdgeneration super-saloon will be subtly evolved, with similar design and tech tweaks to the latest Cayenne.…

AROUND 30 MILLION cars receive an MOT test each year, and in 2021-22 7.3 million failed their MOT test – an increase of 300,000 on the previous period. The cost of living rose sharply during 2021-22 but whether this had a bearing on the number of failures is not clear. However, with MOT failure rates rising significantly as vehicles get older, there might be a connection. The reasons for cars failing MOTs in 2021-22 were consistent with previous years. Topping the list were lights, reflectors and electrical equipment. They were followed by suspension systems, brakes and tyres. Meanwhile, the Department for Transport is considering proposals to change the date of a car’s first test, from three to four years. Opponents, including the RAC Foundation, say similar failure rates suggest three-year-old…

QUESTIONS HANG OVER the viability of carving out Discovery as a stand-alone brand, given it is currently the slowest-selling Land Rover model. However, bosses say it can survive – and thrive – because of the unique role it plays in the JLR portfolio. Describing it as “the ‘we’ brand” and calling it “an enabler to make every day exceptional”, marketing boss Anthony Bradbury said work is under way to determine what the Discovery family of the future looks like. “Of the four brands, it’s the one that – in terms of its future state – there’s the most work to do internally,” he said. “But that’s massively exciting because, in our view, it’s got enormous potential.” JLR sold just over 12,000 full-sized Discoverys in the 12 months to March, compared…

There’s a new slang term for a large SUV, notably for one seen in a location where its off-road prowess is considered to be unnecessary. And it isn’t complimentary. It’s also a little crude. Reader, if you’re of a delicate disposition, please turn the page now. If you aren’t, allow me to introduce you to the wankpanzer. I suspect you won’t need me to tell you what defines a wankpanzer. (I shan’t labour the term. From now on I will use ‘WP’.) A mossy old Land Rover Defender parked outside a dusty barn isn’t one; a new Porsche Cayenne Turbo parked outside Bicester Village certainly is. And so to the new Range Rover Sport SV. It’s a large, luxurious 4x4 that wears 23in wheel rims – optionally available in carbonfibre…

As night follows day, GT3 follows Porsche 911 and CS follows BMW M3. As great as those standard cars are, it makes sense that there’s also a focused, track-honed version with more aero, carbonfibre panels and sticky tyres for those who want to go chasing lap times. It helps that in the case of the 911 GT3, you get a really special engine thrown in. For the Alpine A110, that kind of progression isn’t as obvious, because it’s almost an anti-track car. With its relatively soft suspension, compact dimensions, light weight and fairly modest power output, it’s a car ostensibly and singularly designed to have fun on the road. That it will actually entertain you on a track day seems by the by. The result is that the R makeover…

his is our first time in the BMW Z4 since it received its recent mid-life refresh. TThe M40i tops a scaled-back range, now above only the four-pot sDrive20i (which adopts its M Sport trim, making it appear strikingly similar). Its powertrain is unaltered, the turbocharged 3.0-litre straight six delivering up to 335bhp to the rear via an eight-speed automatic gearbox. There’s also the same five-link rear end, M Sport differential and adaptive dampers as before. The changes fall into the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them category: remodelled side air intakes are claimed to reduce turbulence in the wheel arches; the front grilles get horizontal inner structures to visually widen the front end; and grey mirror caps and trapezoidal tailpipes complete the picture. However, both Z4 models now ride on 18in twin-spoke M alloys as…

2011 Mazda MX-5 2.0i Kendo Mileage 15,200 Price £9990 Autotrader It’s had so little use, it comes with a full history and it’s a limited edition. Not Mazda’s greatest MX-5, but real appeal at this price. 2013 Peugeot RCZ 1.6 THP Mileage 23,000 Price £9990 Autotrader Alluring coupé in 156bhp turbo petrol form. Electric leather heated seats, Bluetooth, full history and barely used. A lot of entertaining glamour for £10k. 2001 Porsche Boxster 2.7 Mileage 29,550 Price £10,000 Autotrader Little used, extensively serviced, attractive colour scheme and a manual. Not the S, but many reckon the 2.7 is the dynamically optimum 986-gen Boxster. 2007 Lexus IS 250 Mileage 24,000 Price £7995 Autotrader Used IS models are fairly plentiful, but they’re rare with this mileage and price. No nav, but miles…

There is something of The Crystal Maze to the day so far. Running from one vast factory building to another: to one line, where Audi Q8 E-tron doors and wiring looms are fitted to the shell, to another building to witness the ‘marriage’ of the body to the chassis, to the ‘Centre for analysis’ to witness lasers analyse panel gaps for accuracy, and then to a junction of avenues that feed traffic through Audi’s Brussels plant, where we witness a slow-motion ballet of automated parts-moving machines merging with manned forklifts, as the entire facility synchronises through an everyday symphony of modern manufacturing. All it would take is for someone to shout “to the Industrial zone!” and then we’d all have to connect a Q8 E-tron wiring loom (all 60kg of…

Luxury stealth tax As I suspected, your research showing that the median average price for new cars being £41,750 means that more of us are paying the £570 vehicle excise duty for five years. This amounts to a stealth tax and combined with high fuel costs certainly has an adverse effect on new car purchase decisions. I for one will probably look at downgrading my next car purchase. Surely with the rise in car prices, this tax threshold should be significantly higher – say, over £45,000 at least. William Robertson Via email Gateway to trouble In February, I received a letter from the Metropolitan Police stating that my car had been caught by a camera doing 27mph on the road from the A3 heading towards Putney. The letter asked me…

There are many fun and idiosyncratic ways to join the rotary club, and becoming a member with a Mazda RX-7 is both of those, but it also carries a certain cachet, especially among knowledgeable petrolheads. You will find a rotary engine in each of its three generations, of course. The Mk3 often grabs the limelight (newest, quickest) and the Mk1 pulls the heartstrings (originality guaranteed) but the Mk2 is perhaps the shrewdest buy of them all. The second-generation model, codenamed FC, entered production in 1985, initially with a naturally aspirated 2.6-litre twin-rotor engine making 148bhp, but output was increased to 178bhp just a year later, courtesy of a twin-scroll turbocharger. If that wasn’t enough, the facelifted RX-7 of 1989 received lighter rotors, a higher compression ratio and more intelligent engine…

THIS WEEKEND, THE Automobile Club de l’Ouest plans to celebrate the centenary of the Le Mans 24 Hours in fine style, not just with the most exciting grid in years but also a fireworks and drones show, pop concerts and an aerobatic display from the ‘Blue Arrows’. This is one of the world’s most famous races, reflected by the fact that the competing prototypes, sports cars and GTs are commonly referred to as Le Mans cars. How did it come to be, though? The 1923 event is, of course, now out of living memory, so let’s retell the story. France was the leading light in cars’ early years, and the ACO played a part in organising what is considered the first-ever grand prix in 1906. GP racing quickly became established…

Volkswagen is “full steam ahead” with the development of a sub-£17,000 electric ‘ID 1’ hatch that will arrive in the next five years as part of a renewed push by car firms to produce affordable electric models. The new EV will serve as a spiritual successor to the e-Up city car and is set to offer a similar combination of compact packaging and back-to-basics technology. Using a new bespoke electric platform that will underpin similar models from sibling brands Cupra and Skoda, the ID 1 will sit below the production version of the recently revealed ID 2all concept, which VW is aiming to sell for around £22,500. Volkswagen Group chief financial officer Arno Antlitz recently said he believes the firm can deliver electric cars at this price point, citing the…

Lexus is aiming to capture a share of the burgeoning premium compact crossover market with its smallest car to date, the LBX. Using the same TNGA-B platform as the smash-hit Toyota Yaris Cross, the ‘Lexus Breakthrough Crossover’ is the first model the Japanese firm has designed specifically for the European market. Its technical specification has been shaped by the demands of its target customers, of whom a “large majority” want a parallel-hybrid powertrain, according to Lexus Europe boss Dimitris Tripospitis. The set-up comprises a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine and an electric motor, which combine to send up to 134bhp and 136lb ft of torque through the front wheels. It draws power from a new bipolar nickel-metal-hydride battery – a chemistry first used in the larger RX that was launched last…

Volkswagen has revealed the long-wheelbase ID Buzz, describing the new seven-seater as a modern-day, electric incarnation of its iconic Samba bus. Planned for UK sale by the end of 2023, the large rearwheel-drive MPV will be the first Volkswagen to feature a newly upgraded 282bhp rear electric motor, recently unveiled with the ID 7 saloon, as well as a larger, 85kWh battery and the biggest panoramic glass sunroof produced by the German car maker to date. The long-wheelbase ID Buzz mirrors the retroinspired look of the standard model, albeit with stretched proportions and, for markets where the regulations allow it – which now include mainland Europe but not yet the UK – an illuminated VW logo at the front. At 4962mm in length, it is 250mm longer than the standard-wheelbase…

LAMBORGHINI CHIEF technical officer Rouven Mohr has hinted to Autocar that carbon-neutral fuels could be a lifeline for its V8, V10 and V12 engines. Speaking at the recent Huracán Sterrato launch, he said: “We are clearly convinced that the majority of the solutions for all the global markets is definitely for full electric without doubt. “We are also convinced that at the moment full electric is not the right choice for our super-sports cars. “We will start later this decade with the more dailyoriented user cars like the Urus or our fourth model we have already announced. “Nevertheless, we also think that e-fuels or synthetic fuels might be an interesting alternative in the future.” The first priority for Lamborghini, however, is electrifying its new cars, starting with the Urus PHEV…

UNDER THE SKIN WITH THE STEADY rise in EVs on the roads globally, it won’t be too long before the world is awash with large lithium ion battery packs that are at the end of their lives and in need of disposal. Processes are already in place to recover a large proportion of the active ingredients of batteries. Batteries being fitted to EVs today will have reached the end of their lives in 10-15 years, and research suggests that by 2030 Europe will be recycling 420,000 tonnes of battery material a year. That may not be as straightforward as it seems. How, for example, do you get to grips with dismantling powerful battery packs on a large scale that are partially charged and potentially lethal? Bosch Rexroth has developed the…

Recent supply issues have caused stocks of new cars to disappear, with the usual storage depots on old airbases and docksides emptied for the first time in living memory. It’s a flip of the situation faced in the recession of 2009, when factories kept on churning out cars that no one bought and there was not an inch of spare space on the runways. People in charge of the spreadsheets get twitchy if a car has been languishing in stock for 90 days and try to move it on with some incentives. At 180 days, they start to panic. Usually, employees will suddenly find they have a new and unrequested company car. The unofficial record for cars held in stock at one brand was 650 days before someone in management…

MONDAY How’s this for an extraordinary meeting? At a recent do in MG’s Marylebone HQ, I got talking to a bloke called Jack Constantine, who owns a ’68 Chevy Corvette. Back in 1992, I wrote about this very car for an organ called Auto Classic, now deceased. Constantine says the car’s previous owner bought it as a result of my breathless prose, from a Kent specialist called Claremont Corvette. I like ’Vettes and I like Richard Falconer, Claremont’s proprietor, so I’d visited a few days earlier. What’s the big deal? Well, on the day of the ’Vette 427 test, Falconer gave me a Claremontbranded keyring with a distinctive steel tag attached. I liked it so much that I’ve used it every day of the past 31 years. I showed it…

You may well wonder why any of us should get particularly excited about the new Porsche 911 Sport Classic. This is yet another limited-edition (and sold-out) supercar that costs a fortune and heralds nothing fresh beyond some admittedly delicious details. Its core elements are well known. The body is 911 Turbo specification, hence the Christina Hendricks hips. So is the engine, although Porsche has detuned its twin-turbo 3.8-litre flat six from 572 to 542bhp, 110lb ft of torque also being lost in the process. At this point, it’s worth noting the Sport Classic costs a full 718 Boxster more than the epic Turbo, at £214k. The manual ’box and suspension are also familiar, and if you spent enough on a Carrera S, you could get close to recreating the offbeat…

A warmed-up SUV is nothing new, but when Vauxhall announced that the Grandland would be one of the founding members of its new performance sub-brand, GSe (which stands for Grand Sport Electric), our interest was piqued, if only a little. GSe has been created to bring “driver-focused chassis set-ups” and “higher-performance” powertrains to the British brand’s cars. You would be forgiven for thinking the form taken by those powertrains would be electric, but instead, like the Astra GSe hatchback, the Grandland GSe launches in petrol-electric plug-in hybrid guise. Unlike the Astra GSe, though, the Grandland GSe doesn’t even bring a new powertrain option to its model line-up: it uses the 296bhp, 384lb ft PHEV system as found in the Hybrid4 300 (although that variant was dropped in the recent facelift).…

So £20 million? £25m? £30m? Audi A8? BMW 7 Series? S Mercedes S-Class? We’re winding up our interview and I’m at the cheeky stage of questioning, trying to find out the biggest development budget for a (not so humble) headlight. I’ve done my homework, but as befits a man with a black book of customers as big as the industry itself, there’s not even a flicker of acknowledgement on the face of Spencer Grinham, a 25-year stalwart of Hella. Client confidentiality is sacrosanct, but thankfully there’s much Grinham has been willing to discuss in the world of headlight development. To you and me, they may just turn on and off, and illuminate the road ahead (while being irritatingly complex and expensive to replace), but to Grinham and his colleagues, they…

Rallycross is changing. Its mix of high-powered all-wheel-drive supercars taking part in short sprint races on mixed surfaces makes it arguably the form of motorsport most suited to electric power. Which explains why the two top rallycross championships now use battery-powered machines. So how has the switch to EVs changed the challenge for drivers? Andreas Bakkerud is one of those who has had to make the adjustment. The 2021 European champion, he was a regular title contender in a seven-year stint racing turbocharged supercars in the World Rallycross Championship. The 31-year-old Norwegian now competes for the Dreyer & Reinbold JC-run Monster Energy RX Cartel squad in the US-based Nitrocross (formerly Nitro Rallycross) series, which last season introduced a new top class using the FCX-1, a 1055bhp quad-motor bespoke electric racer.…

Your Slideshow on British Leyland (10 May) reminded me of my life and times with its cars. I started my career in sales with Pilkington Glass, and because they owned Triplex Safety Glass, we were allowed to drive only British cars. My first car, when I was in central London, was a worn-out Morris Minor 1000. It was nice to drive, as long as I remembered to get out and hit the offside rear wing to get the fuel pump going again, as they had a habit of just stopping. Eventually it was condemned, its brakes worn out, so I got one of the first Morris Mini Travellers. I picked it up at HQ in Lancashire and drove to London in heavy rain. Once there, I noticed the carpets were…

An owner’s view DEAN RICHARDS “The best aspect of an RX-7 is true performance for an economical price. The common problems with all rotary engines are that the tips blow. Well, actually the tips fail, due to starvation of oil, which is injected directly into the bore. They also suffer from hot and cold starting problems and failing coil packs. On the plus side, they don’t require an MOT emissions test, being classed as two-stroke, which makes them great for modifying for greater performance. If you’re looking for a relatively cheap, sporty, fun car, try an RX-7, especially one with a turbo. You might only get 10 seconds or less until you blow it but, like Dominic Toretto says, you’ll be free!” Buyer beware… ENGINE Rotaries drink oil. If not…

A road test in any other magazine might well be a short, subjective summary of a new car produced under almost any circumstances, but the Autocar road test is different. Specific, rigorous and detailed, it’s the closest examination we can give of any new model. It appears over at least eight pages and is close to 50 man-hours in the making every week. Most of what the road test process entails is designed to be strictly repeatable and fair. We benchmark standing-start and in-gear acceleration at a purpose-built test facility every week. We carry out both subjective and objective handling tests on both road and track, on the latter up to and beyond the limit of grip, so as to fully assess stability, drivability and limit handling appeal. And while…

Aston Martin will reveal its product plan for the next five years – including an EV on sale in 2026 – on 27 June, chairman Lawrence Stroll has confirmed to Autocar in a wide-ranging interview. At its capital markets day, the British company will detail “PHEVs and BEVs and the balance of ICE cars coming over the next 18 months”. That last group will be seven models to follow the new DB12 coupé: replacements for the existing line-up of Vantage, DB11 and DBS cars, with a DB12 Volante convertible tipped to arrive first. As for PHEVs, Stroll said the technology would “last well into the 2030s”, because “I don’t have many customers asking me for a BEV”. That said, Aston Martin will launch its first EV in 2026, and work…

VAUXHALL IS COMMITTED to selling superminis, with no plans to follow Ford out of the B-segment, design boss Mark Adams has confirmed. While Cologne prepares to finish Fiesta production, the British brand has just revealed a revised Corsa and is planning for its successor to arrive later this decade. Speaking at a showcase of the new Corsa, Adams said its relationship with Stellantis was key to Vauxhall being able to commit to a future in the supermini market. “It’s [economies of] scale and smart sharing,” Adams explained when asked how Vauxhall was still able to make a success out of its supermini. Adams added that while the Corsa might have a close technical relationship to the likes of the Citroën C3 and Peugeot 208, customers don’t notice this in areas…

THE FIAT TOPOLINO, precursor to the legendary 500, has returned after nearly 70 years as the Turin firm’s second electric car. Like the original, the new Topolino is a two-door, twoseat city car designed with a keen eye on simplicity and affordability – helped in these pursuits by being obviously based on the Citroën Ami. Like its French cousin, the retro runaround will have a top speed of 28mph and a range of 46 miles – but it is marked out by a 1950s-flavoured front end, cream leather seats… and open sides like the old 500 Jolly (below). Fiat has not voiced any plans for a UK launch. DON’T LOOK BACK IN LANGUOR FELIX PAGE Above is a mammoth sevenseat EV weighing in at nearly three tonnes and capable of…

Evidence is emerging that as the cost of living increases and used car prices continue to rise, motorists are falling into two camps: those cutting back on vehicle maintenance to save money and others who, unable to replace their cars and fearful of future high repair bills, are having them serviced or repaired without question. According to a survey of 2000 drivers by VW Financial Services (VWFS), one-third of owners have missed an essential service on their car due to rising living costs and almost half of those under 35 years old have made a journey knowing their car needed essential maintenance. “The cost of living crisis has left many drivers, and particularly younger ones, contemplating the difficult decision to skip essential vehicle maintenance and compromise safety,” said Mike Todd,…

“We have to take greater ownership of the client relationship. Clients want it” JLR will completely overhaul its retail network in line with its all-out repositioning as a luxury manufacturer, introducing an agency sales model and transforming its showrooms to give a much “warmer” and “less formal” experience. Briefing Autocar on how JLR’s Reimagine strategy will affect its retail operations – following a wide-reaching product preview led by CEO Adrian Mardell in April – company bosses explained why “we have to change; we can’t do what we’ve always done” in light of fierce competition from new premium-market contenders and upheaval in the car sales sphere. Interim UK managing director Patrick McGillycuddy said: “If you look at our current model, we devolve responsibility for the client interaction entirely to our retail…

Mercedes-Benz has confirmed the longmooted CLE name for the upcoming successor to its existing C-Class and E-Class coupé and cabriolet models. To be revealed in coupé form in July and launched in the UK by the end of the year, the new two-door model forms part of plans by the German car maker to consolidate its traditional ICE line-up as it pushes forward with an ambitious EV roll-out. Christof Kühner, head of overall vehicle testing for the CLE, said: “We asked C-Class Coupé owners what they expected from a successor model. The overwhelming answer was ‘greater luxury’. E-Class Coupé owners, on the other hand, said they wanted a ‘more sporting driving character’. We’ve attempted to imbue these qualities into a single model.” The basis for the new 2+2 coupé –…

The race they didn’t want to finish: that’s how we will remember the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500, as a bumper crowd of 325,000 packed into the mammoth speedway to witness a motor race of high drama, a great escape from something that could have been truly horrific, dollops of controversy and a thrilling pass to decide the win on the final lap. Three red-flag stoppages in the final 20 laps stretched out the tension in what until then had been a relatively clean Indy 500. But this race meant everything to the 33 drivers and crews, and as the saga headed towards its climax, some cracked under pressure. Through it all came Josef Newgarden from Nashville. A twotime Indycar champion making his 12th start in the Big One,…

Cars based on vans have been commonplace for a long time, but the popularity of people-moving Citroën Berlingos and the like – dog cars, I like to call them – is on the wane in sales terms, due to the rise of SUVs. Which makes the new Mercedes EQT a curious thing. Being derived from the recently introduced T-Class (which is the passenger version of the second-generation Citan compact van) means the EQT shares its platform with the Renault Kangoo, and in fact it’s built by the French company in Maubeuge. The single front-mounted 122bhp electric motor and 45kWh battery are also familiar, coming from the eCitan and Kangoo E-Tech, and in this application are officially enough for a range of 175 miles. Charging can occur at rates of up…

The Volkswagen Golf may be a fine car but, let’s face it, it has won enough Best Used Car competitions to last a lifetime. Even for buyers with eyes fixed only on value, utility and long life, there are wider, more imaginative and possibly cheaper choices than the ubiquitous, mid-sized, 49-year-old, go-to hatchback from Wolfsburg. However, there’s no doubt the used car market is a bewildering place for buyers who don’t frequent it often. Cars are everywhere, in all ages, shapes, sizes and mileages. Decade-old models are cheaper, but should you take the risk? How many miles are too many? Can used car dealers be trusted nowadays? Why isn’t there an easy route through this automotive quagmire? Well, we believe there is. Just such a thing has been devised and…

Here’s a good pub quiz question: who was the world’s biggest manufacturer of plug-in cars in 2022? What would you guess? Tesla’s the obvious one. Maybe the Volkswagen Group or Stellantis? Well, you’d be looking at the wrong side of the planet. BYD, or Build Your Dreams, is a Chinese manufacturer based in Shenzhen. It produces batteries, solar panels, forklift trucks, trains, buses, cars and more, and it’s recently burst onto the European car market, including the UK. Last year, it made 1.85 million plug-in cars. BYD is no small deal, then. It was established in 1995 chiefly as a battery producer, while the automotive arm – BYD Auto Co Ltd – arrived in 2003. At the end of 2022, it produced one in every five phone batteries around the…

MODEL TESTED RWD ULTIMATE • Price £50,540 • Power 225bhp • Torque 258lb ft • 0-60mph 7.2sec • 30-70mph 6.2sec • Economy 3.4mpkWh • Max DC charging speed 229kW • 70-0mph 60.1m Even though the Ioniq 5 crossover wasn’t Hyundai’s first EV when it came along in 2021, it felt like a watershed moment for a car maker whose stock continues to rise today. It showed that this Korean firm was ready to throw off the shackles of its old budget-brand reputation and to use electrification as an opportunity to recast its public image as a maker of genuinely distinctive, future-facing cars. Now, that effort finds another gear. After Ioniq 5 comes Ioniq 6: in one sense, Hyundai’s reply to the popular Tesla Model 3 – and just the kind…

FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the new electric Niro is the Volkswagen Golf of the EV world When the Kia Niro was named as one of the seven cars shortlisted for the 2023 Car of the Year award late last year, the nice man from Kia asked me if I would like to speak to UK boss Paul Philpott about the model and its success. In coming up with some topics for that discussion, a thought struck me, and it has stuck with me ever since: the Niro EV is like the Volkswagen Golf of the electric car world. The Golf has long been the de-facto choice in the ‘old world’ for those who just want a family car to quietly but brilliantly do it all,…

GROUP TEST Smart #1 vs rivals Relaunched brand’s crucial new electric crossover takes on proven Cupra Born and upstart BYD Atto 3 INVESTIGATION Artificial intelligence What AI means for the car industry and whether we should fear for the future FEATURE K-cars We absorb Korea’s car tuning culture, including a Crown with furry seats EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Ford Ranger We take a deep dive into the latest iteration of Ford’s workhorse OUR CARS Ford Focus Estate Do such cars still have a place in the UK? We’ll tell you what we think SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p20…

The endurance, the history, the fans, the weather, the heart-inmouth finishes: drama is never far from the Le Mans 24 Hours. Throw in some of the most fantastic machines ever to grace a circuit and you’re left with a heady mix of iconic sporting moments. In celebration, we’ve gone through all that history to pick our favourite Le Mans cars ahead of the race’s centenary running this weekend. Cunningham Cadillac Series 61 1950 I love this car mostly for its extreme ugliness but also for the fact that it worked – sort of. Just after the war, a new American recruit to sports car racing, Briggs Cunningham, entered two Cadillac 61 coupés in the 1950 Le Mans race. He decided to run one in stock form and replace the body…